Bowtie Shaped 5c Nickel Webbing Scrap Ebay Purchase

A neat buy for sure! =)



I think that tactic is used by many unscrupulous sellers. They choose a high cost shipping option or set a multiple dollar flat rate, knowing that some buyers will miss the unreasonably high total cost. I have also had a number of sellers charge me $5-6 for USPS Ground Advantage shipping, and then switch to either ebay Envelope or untracked USPS mail, whilst pocketing the difference as profit.

While "webbing" is an acceptable term, another word you can use to describe this material is "scissel".

In terms of "how it escapes", I'd imagine there would be less security around the scrap metal end of the Mint as there's less risk of theft - stealing coins has obvious and immediate financial benefits and so security protocols are in place to protect finished coins, but stealing tiny bits of scrap metal, not so much.

Finding scissel for some non-US coins is easier, as many mints in other countries don't manufacture their own blanks and so outsource their scrap metal processing to external companies, and security at a scrap metal plant is much lower than at a Mint - employees at those companies can simply walk off with however much of this material as they please.

That is a fun purchase E&V.

Thanks to Sap for another informative reply which has helped to clarify the topic.

Interesting purchase, nice going E&V

Yeah it is fun to get strange numismatic stuff.

Thank you, Tunnioc! It's a great addition to my collection.

Another way this scrap "escaped" the mint was for the mint to actually sell it as scrap back in the late 90s early Y2K.
I believe that is how some cancelled dies are also available.